Police arrested two 10-year-old would-be suicide bombers in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday, months after President Hamid Karzai pardoned the pair over a similar incident.

"The two ten-year old would-be bombers were arrested along with three other militants last week, while planning an attack on Afghan and international forces in Kandahar", Zalmai Ayubi the provincial spokesman told AFP.

The children had two vests full of explosives when they were detained, he added.

They had previously been arrested by security forces, again wearing explosive vests but were reportedly released last August, along with 18 other children, after receiving a pardon from the Afghan President.

The two boys had gone to Pakistan after their release but were sent back to Afghanistan after being trained to conduct suicide attacks.

"They told me I would be safe after conducting a suicide attack," one the boys Azizullah was quoted in a statement sent by Kandahar media office.

The boy said he was persuaded to carry out the attack at a training camp by militants who told him when "Americans fire at you... they will not be able to hit you".

The second boy, named as Nasibullah in the statement, said he had been forced to join a militant team who handed him over to the Taliban.

"The Taliban forced me to fire a Kalashinkov... I was scared at first. They also taught me how to blow my vest, they showed me how to press the button in my hand," he said, according to the statement.

"They then brought me to the city, asked me to sit on the side of the road and wait for foreign forces to come... I was there when two police came and arrested me.

"I ask all my madrassa teachers not to teach kids to become suicide bombers."

#3
The report also quotes a senior al-Qaida detainee as saying: "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching." He added: "The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad."

[An Nahar] Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch, strongly active in the south of the impoverished nation, executed two of its members on Sunday accusing them of spying on its operations, witnesses said.

The pair were accused of planting tracking devices in the vehicles of fellow al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Death Eaters and of providing Yemeni authorities, and the Saudi and U.S. intelligence services, with information.

They were publicly rubbed out in front of dozens of residents after the accusations against them were read out, the witnesses said.

The first, identified only by his surname, Yafii, was executed in Jaar, in Abyan province, while Ramzi al-Ariqi, was rubbed out in Azzan, in neighboring Shabwa.

AQAP loyalists control large swathes of both provinces after taking advantage of a decline in central government authority during the anti-government protests that swept the country last year.

[An Nahar] Security forces in Bahrain used tear gas on Sunday against hundreds of protesters trying to approach Manama's former Pearl Square, the focal point of a month of Shiite-led protests last year, witnesses told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Trying to get ahead on the To Do list before taking a break for the festivities...

Several small groups of demonstrators numbering several hundred people tried to march from Shiite neighborhoods around the capital to the square ahead of Tuesday's first anniversary of the outbreak of the 2011 protests.

But the witnesses said police used tear gas and sound grenades against the protesters, who were chanting slogans demanding reform, and prevented them from reaching the square.

It was not immediately known if there were any casualties.

Security personnel had deployed in force on Sunday after calls by the opposition and activists for protests marking the anniversary, activists and witnesses said.

Activists had called for demonstrations on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday towards Pearl Square, epicenter of the protest that erupted on February 14 last year and was crushed a month later, said Mohammed Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights.

Witnesses reported a heavy security presence at main junctions in Manama from Sunday morning, especially at the al-Farook interchange that was built on Pearl Square, which was razed a day after the protest was crushed.

Several checkpoints were set up and caused traffic jams, especially around the afternoon rush hour, they added.

RIYADH: Saudi blogger Hamza Kashghari, who had fled to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday after tweeting insulting comments about Prophet Muhammad, was taken into custody as he arrived in Riyadh on Sunday night.

It followed Kashghari's deportation by Malaysian authorities. The 23-year-old man will face charges of blasphemy, informed sources told Arab News.

Bet he's not feeling so good right now...

The sources said Kashghari was accompanied by Saudi officials on his flight to King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh. The sources explained that it was a standing rule in Malaysia to deport people wanted to face justice in their countries. Kashghari escaped the Kingdom after realizing that the deletion of his tweets and a subsequent tweet apologizing for the statements were not enough to stop leveling of charges against him.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has issued orders to arrest Kashghari and bring him to justice.

A large number of male and female bloggers from Saudi Arabia and abroad have called for Kashghari's trial on charges of apostasy. Kashghari's tweets stirred an angry response in Saudi society and were met by denunciation and condemnation by a section of the Twitter community.

The Permanent Committee of Scholarly Research and Islamic Edicts (Ifta) in an official statement said anyone who dares to mock Allah, His Prophet or the religion should be tried on charges of apostasy.

Bombers targeted staff at Israel's embassies in India and Georgia on Monday, the foreign ministry said, with a bomb going off in New Delhi but a second device in Tbilisi defused.

Indian police said a bomb hit an embassy car and wounded a woman. She was not immediately identified and there was no word on her condition.

"There was one attempted attack, and one successful, as it were," said Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry. "In both cases, the people concerned worked with the Israeli embassies."

He also confirmed that a bomb had been found in a car belonging to a staffer at the embassy in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, which was defused by local police.

Hirschson said the Israeli ambassador to India was not hurt in the New Delhi attack.

The body of a kidnapped official of Khasadar Force was found in Khwezai area of Mohmand... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency on Saturday, officials said.

They said that the slain khasadar...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India... , Toor Gul Khan, a resident of Atta Khewazai, was kidnapped by unidentified hard boyz along with three other people a couple of days ago.

The other kidnapped persons were identified as Khalid, Ajmir and Mohammad.

Mohmand Taliban front man Mukarram Khurasani has grabbed credit for the killing of the kidnapped security man, saying other people in their custody are relatives of khasadars.

In Khyber Agency, one person was injured and a vehicle was partially damaged when a roadside kaboomwent kaboom! in Tirah valley on Saturday.

Sources said that a pick-up truck loaded with timber was on its way to a local market when it was hit by an bomb planted along roadside in Khayest village.

They said that the driver was critically injured while his vehicle was partially damaged. The injured driver, whose identity could not be established, was shifted to a local dispensary for treatment.

In Kohat, police claimed to have set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock nine hard boyz including a local commander after fierce shootout in Mando Khel area on late Friday night.

The hard boyz hurled hand grenades at a police van during a search operation and injured a constable identified as Syed Hussain. He was admitted to a hospital.

Bilitang police, backed by armoured personnel carriers, had launched a search operation in the area after getting information that hard boyz were hiding there.

Militants attacked a police vehicle with hand grenades. An APC was also partially damaged in the attack. After the incident, Elite Force and commandoes were sent to the area to help the police party busy in search operation.

The law-enforcers besieged the entire area and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock a local turban commander identified as Mullah Yousuf Ali along with his eight accomplices.

The set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lockhard boyz were shifted to Bilitang cop shoppe where a case was registered against them under Terrorism Act.

Meanwhile,...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... the commissioner of Kohat has claimed that hard boyz have been wiped out from most of the areas in frontier region and peace will be restored after the expulsion of their remnants.

He was speaking after inaugurating polio...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccination campaign in the office of the assistant political agent by administering drops to a child.

He said that the semi-autonomous tribal area of Kohat had been made safe by security forces and the remaining hard boyz would also be eliminated soon.

The commissioner said that government would form peace jirgas throughout the Frontier Region of Kohat to ensure lasting peace in the areas.

He said that government would set up a university in Darra Adamkhel that would play a major role in educating rustics and bring them at par with other areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central....

ISLAMABAD  Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed because she supported the Lal Masjid operation, an anti-terrorism court was told in Rawalpindi on Saturday. Magistrate Taufiq Ahmed, who had recorded confessional statements of accused Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul and Aitzaz Shah on February 13, 2008, said they told him that they wanted to kill only Benazir and because of the deaths of 23 other people in the attack, which they regretted, they would accept any punishment awarded to them.

During the hearing of the Benazir assassination case in Adiala Jail, the magistrate read out the confessional statements before ATC Judge Shahid Rafique. According to the statements, the accused received Rs360,000 from Baitullah Mehsood while his associates, Abdullah alias Saddam and Qari Ismail, provided them two suicide bombers Saeed alias Bilal and Ikramullah. They purchased a pistol to be used by the suicide attacker because the plan was to kill Benazir near the stage during her rally in Liaqat Bagh on December 27, 2007. The accused, along with the suicide bomber, visited the venue on the night before the rally and took him to their residence in Quaid-i-Azam Colony in Rawalpindi.

The accused brought the bomber to the venue early in the morning only to learn that because of tight security arrangements, it was difficult to get inside and near the stage. Then they deployed the bomber in front of the gate of Liaqat Bagh and another attacker Ikramullah at another exit point.

After carrying out the crime, the accused reassembled near Fawara Chowk, Raja Bazar, and later went to their residence.

QUETTA, Pakistan: A tribal policeman has accused Afghan forces of crossing into southwestern Pakistan and snatching three men allegedly providing safe haven to militants fighting in Afghanistan.

Why all the fuss? It's not as if they're kaffirs.

Mohammed Azim says 13 Afghan security personnel drove nearly 2 miles (3 kilometers) into Baluchistan province Saturday and took the men from Thurkha village. He said Sunday that officials have received unconfirmed reports that two of the men have been killed. Azim is a tribal policeman in Killa Saifullah district, where Thurkha is located.

Pass the word to the jihadis: it's not just Predators that can reach out and touch you...and Predators are probably kinder.

Harder to bribe, tho.

Afghan officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The border in the area is not clearly marked.

Many Taleban militants fighting in Afghanistan are believed to be based in Baluchistan and other areas along the Afghan border.

ARBIL / Aswat al-Iraq: Turkish planes resumed their shelling of the Kurdistan region borders, according to military sources in Border Guards Command. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that no exact figures on the casualties were reported.

The shelling was directed against a number of villages following the clashes that took place last Friday between anti-Turkish PKK party and the Turkish army.

Border Guards Command reported that more than 12 casualties were reported during Thursday clashes, while a close source to the PKK said that a great number of casualties fell among the Turkish army. The source added that 4 members from the PKK party were killed, expecting that more tensions and clashes to occur again and charging the Turkish government to continue the policies of oppression against the Kurds and their rights.

Kurdish border areas witness Turkish and Iranian attacks under the pretext of chasing PKK and PJAK parties' members in the area.

#4
Oh, heck yes. Remember that Israel and Israelis have been attacked by Muslims all over the world for decades, so they are very 'up' for self defense. They have also compiled quite a list of known Iranian agents over the years, including many known 'sleepers', that would never see it coming.

They also get intelligence feeds from western countries that identify Iranian agents, so if they want to go on a Smert Shpionam, I know who is going to get burned worse.

[An Nahar] The head of a controversial Arab League...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... observer mission to Syria has resigned, an Arab League official told Agence La Belle France Presse on Sunday.

The resignation of General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi was due to be officially announced at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo later in the day, the official said, without saying why the Sudanese former military intelligence officer had quit.

Arab countries were meeting in Cairo in a renewed push to end Syria's bloody 11-month crackdown on dissent, as fighting escalated.

The resignation comes as the ministers discuss the possibility of sending a joint U.N.-Arab mission to Syria, the official said.

He added that Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi also met with former Jordanian PM Abdel Ilah Khatib, who has been proposed as the next Arab envoy to Syria, the official said.

[An Nahar] Jordan's powerful Moslem Brüderbund on Sunday called for "jihad" against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad'sTrampler of Homs... regime and support for a rebel army, saying it is "an Islamic duty."

"This duty requires all Moslems to support the (rebel) Free Syrian Army against the aggression of the regime's criminal and brutal forces," Brotherhood leader Hammam Saeed was quoted as saying in a statement on the group's website.

"The Free Syrian Army must continue to defend its nation and face the crimes of the regime."

The crackdown on protests in Syria have killed more than 6,000 people since March last year.

"Jihad against Assad is an Islamic duty," said Mohammad Abu Fares, a member of the movement's fatwa (religious edict) committee.

"The Syrian people have the right to defend themselves. They must not give up."

The Islamists, who demanded Jordan recognize the opposition Syrian National Council, sent letters Sunday to the prime ministers of Russia and China, urging them to reconsider their vetoes used earlier this month to block a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria's regime.

"The veto was a green light for Assad's regime to multiply its crimes against the Syrian people," said Hamzeh Mansour, chief of the Islamic Action Front...Jordan's branch of the Moslem Brüderbund..., the Brotherhood's political arm, which have urged Moslems and Arabs to boycott Russian and Chinese products.

Meanwhile,...back at the bake sale, Umberto's Mom's cannoli were a big hit... Jordan's Hashemite Charity Organization said it will open a camp to host Syrian refugees near the border by the end of next week.

"Currently there are 700 Syrian families in the southern city of Mafraq, where the organization has rented houses for them."

Government figures are unavailable on Syrians who have decamped to neighboring Jordan from the deadly unrest in their country, but U.N. head the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said during a visit to Amman last month that the kingdom was hosting 2,500 Syrians.

The GOOD NEWS is that Baby Assad is equally + unabshedly brutal agz Muslim + non-Muslim as per any perceived threats to Regime power; THE BAD NEWS IS THAT SYRIA'S CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY, PROTECTED UNDER BABY ASSAD + BIG DADDY BEFORE HIM, FACE RISK OF PERSECUTION + POSSIBLY GENOCIDE ONCE ASSAD IS SUCCESSFULLY REMOVED/DEPOSED FROM POWER, as the pro-"Arab Spring" New Boyz like neither Assad Regime nor non-Muslims wid a passion.

[An Nahar] A commission tasked with drafting a new Syrian constitution submitted a draft charter to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadLord of the Baath... on Sunday, the official SANA news agency reported.

"Assad on Sunday received a copy of the new draft constitution from the head of the national committee charged with drafting a new constitution for the Syrian Arab Republic," SANA said.

"Assad is to review the draft constitution and refer it to the People's Assembly before putting it to referendum," it added.

In January, Assad said a new constitution was being drawn up by a committee set up in October to replace the current one, which enshrines his Baath party's dominant role, and that it could be put to a popular vote as early as March.

Syria's government lifted a state of emergency in April last year and in July adopted a law allowing a multi-party political system.

[An Nahar] Shelling by the Syrian army killed at least 14 civilians in the central protest city of Homs on Sunday, a rights group said.

The Britannia-based group said all but one of them died in Baba Amr, a rebel stronghold in the city which armed forces have targeted for more than a week, killing at least 500 people, according to activists.

It also reported fierce festivities on the northern edge of nearby Rastan, where a woman was killed when a rocket smashed into her home. Elsewhere, snipers rubbed out a child in Daraa, cradle of the 11-month uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad'sLord of the Baath... regime.

The Observatory added that another 30 tanks and armored personnel carriers were on the way to Homs.

State television aired live footage on Sunday of an official funeral for the 28 people authorities say were killed in twin car booms that destroyed the northern city of Aleppo...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... on Friday.

The authorities blamed "terrorists" for the attacks, but the rebel Free Syrian Army accused the regime of launching them "to steer attention away from what it is doing in Homs, Zabadani and elsewhere."

A U.S. media report citing unnamed American officials said al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch was likely to have carried out the Aleppo bombings, along with attacks in Damascus...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... in December and January.

The bombings appeared to verify Assad's charges of al-Qaeda involvement in the uprising against his 11-year rule, said the McClatchy Newspapers chain.

Iraq's deputy interior minister said jihadists were moving from Iraq to Syria, as were weapons for Assad's opponents.

"We have intelligence information that a number of Iraqi jihadists went to Syria," Adnan al-Assadi told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that "weapons smuggling is still ongoing."

Forty-five people were killed across Syria on Saturday, most of them civilians, the Britannia-based Observatory said.

Security forces also advanced into Zabadani, it said, adding that three non-combatants were killed in the town between Damascus and the Lebanese border.

[Dawn] Al-Qaeda's chief has called on Moslems from other countries to support rebels in Syria seeking to overthrow Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadBefore going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor..., saying they cannot depend on the West for help.

Ayman al-Zawahri, in a videotaped statement released late Saturday, asked Moslems in Iraq, Jordan, Leb and Turkey to join the uprising against Assad's "pernicious, cancerous regime." All four states border Syria.

A senior Iraqi security official also told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Saturday that intelligence over the last four months has revealed a flow of al-Qaeda-linked fighters from the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul into Syria.

The comments by both the Iraqi official and al-Zawahri came a day after two suicide car boomers struck security compounds in Aleppo,...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... a Syrian city that had been relatively peaceful throughout the country's 11-month-uprising. Though there was no claim of responsibility, suicide kabooms are a hallmark of al-Qaeda.

"There is no treatment for (the Assad regime) other than removal," al-Zawahri says in the eight-minute video posted on jihadist websites, according to US-based SITE Intel Group, which monitors Death Eater messages.

"Don't depend on the West and Turkey, which had deals, mutual understanding and sharing with this regime for decades and only began to abandon it after they saw it faltering," he said. "Instead, depend on Allah alone and then on your sacrifices, resistance, and steadfastness."

He urged Syrians to oppose help from the Arab League...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... and "its corrupt agent governments." The League has put forth a plan to try to end violence in Syria but it suspended an observers mission to the country after the regime flouted its agreement to the terms of the plan.

Hours later, a Sunni sheik in Iraq's northern Kurdish region said a group of holy mans in the area is calling for a Moslem jihad, or holy war, against Assad's regime.

"Jihad is the duty of every Moslem against the Assad regime," said Sheik Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Karim Barzanji, describing the edict issued by the Union of the Scholars of Islam in Kurdistan. "Any support from any Moslem or country is forbidden."

Egyptian-born al-Zawahri took over al-Qaeda after the late Osama bin Laden... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse... was killed last May by a US special forces raid on his hideout in Pakistain.

The Iraqi official said at least two Syrian jacket wallahs who trained in djinn-infested Mosul have crossed the border to join the fight in Syria.

Fighters armed with guns and explosives also have headed from Iraq to Syria, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss intelligence.

A US official in Washington, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said it would not be surprising if Iraqi al-Qaeda gunnies are aiding Syrian rebels, but would not discuss or confirm specific intelligence. However,some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... the official noted that al-Qaeda in Iraq long has had an operational network in Syria.

[Dawn] The Arab League...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... said it agreed on Sunday to open contacts with Syria's opposition and to ask the United Nations...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... to form a joint peacekeeping force to the unrest-swept country.

Arab diplomats "will open channels of communication with the Syrian opposition and offer full political and financial support, urging (the opposition) to unify its ranks," it said in a statement obtained by AFP.

They would also "ask the UN Security Council to issue a decision on the formation of a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping force to oversee the implementation of a ceasefire," it said.

After marathon talks in Cairo, the 22-member bloc also announced it had formally ended its own observer mission to Syria, which was suspended last month because of an upsurge in violence.

Check the pic at the link. Iranian patrol boats can't get into a straight line on a calm sea.

MANAMA: Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the US Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of US naval forces in the region said on Sunday.

Iran has made a series of threats in recent weeks to disrupt shipping in the Gulf or strike US forces in retaliation if its oil trade is shut down by sanctions, or if its disputed nuclear program comes under attack.

They have increased the number of submarines ... they increased the number of fast attack craft, Vice Admiral Mark Fox told reporters. Some of the small boats have been outfitted with a large warhead that could be used as a suicide explosive device. The Iranians have a large mine inventory.

We have watched with interest their development of long range rockets and short, medium and long range ballistic missiles and of course ... the development of their nuclear program, Fox, who heads the US Fifth Fleet, said at a briefing on the fleets base in the Gulf state of Bahrain.

Iran now has 10 small submarines, he said.

Military experts say the US Navys Fifth Fleet patrolling the Gulf  which always has at least one giant supercarrier accompanied by scores of jets and a fleet of frigates and destroyers  is overwhelmingly more powerful than Irans navy.

But ever since Al-Qaeda suicide bombers in a small boat killed 17 sailors on board the destroyer USS Cole in a port in Yemen in 1996, Washington has been wary of the vulnerability of its huge battleships to bomb attacks by small enemy craft.

Asked whether the US Navy was prepared for an attack or other trouble in the Gulf, Fox said: We are very vigilant, we have built a wide range of options to give the president and we are ready... What if it happened tonight? We are ready today.

Asked if he took Irans threats seriously, Fox Said: Could they make like extremely difficult for us? Yes they could. If we did nothing and they were able to operate without being inhibited, yeah they could close it, but I cant see that we would ever be in that position.

He added that diplomacy should be given priority in resolving the tension.

So when you hear discussion about all this overheated rhetoric from Iran we really believe that the best way to handle this is with diplomacy... I am absolutely convinced that is the way to go. It is our job to be prepared. We are vigilant.

Contacts between the US Navy and Iranian craft in the Gulf region were routine, Fox said, referring to cases where his sailors helped Iranian ships that were in distress or threatened by pirates.

In addition to commanding the Fifth Fleet, Fox is also the commander of a multinational naval task force charged with ensuring Gulf shipping routes stay open. Although most of its firepower is American, the task force also includes other Western countries and the Gulf Arab states.

#4
ROOTERS has a article about China scrambling for other oil sources to replace Iran. 20% of China's oil comes from Iran. The Saudis have some excess capacity, about 2.75 million bpd for emergencies, and by the way, Iran puts out 3.5 million bpd.

I may be full of it, but Iran may be just posturing or creating a large game of chicken. The Saudis and others are not going to just stand by and let the Iranians close the straits. It comes down to pocketbooks of gulf states. If Iran attempts to pull that stunt, they are going to get their a$$es kicked. The Saudis will tell O what to do if he cannot figure it out.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.